Name: Planet Finder
Rating: 4 (1 reviews)
Author: Lenoc

Is that bright dot in the sky Jupiter or Venus? How do you find Mars? Planet Finder shows you which planets are in the sky right now, and which way to look.

Turn around and the display turns with you, so you can find the Moon and the planets you can see with the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. It works anywhere, with no phone or internet connection needed. Every position is calculated on your watch.

GLANCE
Everything above the horizon sits on a line that represents the full 360° around you. Whatever is straight ahead is in the middle, at the small upright mark, and what’s behind you is at the two ends. The direction you’re facing (N, NE, E…) is shown at the top right. The Moon shows its current phase, and each planet’s dot is sized by how bright it looks.

SKY VIEW
Open the app to see the sky in front of you. The horizon is near the bottom and directly overhead is at the top, with lines at 30° and 60°, so each body appears at its true height. Bodies high in the sky move less as you turn, just as they do in real life, and anything passing overhead slides over the top.

TIMELINE
Swipe up or press Down to see today’s timeline, from midnight to midnight. Each row shows when the Moon or a planet is at least 5° above the horizon. The background shows day (blue), twilight (violet) and night (black). The Moon can often be seen in daylight, but the planets are usually only visible in twilight or at night. A white line marks the time now.

6 MONTHS
The next page shows how each planet’s brightness changes over the next six months. The bigger the dot, the brighter the planet. When a planet is too close to the Sun to be seen, its dots shrink to tiny grey ones. Faint lines mark the start of each month.

BEST
The last page shows when each planet will next be at its brightest, and how much brighter that is than now (for example, 2.5x). For Mercury, which never strays far from the Sun, it shows when it will next be easiest to see, and whether to look in the evening or morning sky.

Abbreviations
Su = Sun, Mo = Moon, Me = Mercury, Ve = Venus, Ma = Mars, Ju = Jupiter, Sa = Saturn. Uranus and Neptune aren’t included because they can’t be seen with the naked eye.

Good to know:

- The views turn using your watch’s compass. On watches without a compass, they show a fixed view facing south.
- Your watch only updates its location now and then. If the positions look wrong, record a short activity outdoors so it gets a fresh GPS fix.
- Your location is used only on the watch to calculate the sky. No data leaves your watch.
- Planet Finder is free.

Positions are calculated using the methods in Paul Schlyter’s “How to compute planetary positions”.

Suggestions and bug reports are very welcome.